Monthly Archives: March 2016

Every few years, someone around the ideaFACTORY would get fed up and approach i.james.jones about releasing the “lost record” thin.KING. SOON COME.

Methods ranged, but none prevailed. Every time it seemed like it would come down from the shelf, it somehow managed to keep its dusty place. Jones calls it his “lost record”. Some off us call it his “cursed record”. (As one bP co-conspirator declared “it is cursed, cause he believes it is cursed”. It may be so).

thin.KING.SOON COME. was recorded during his time with the now defunct District Six Music (Zaki Ibrahim, Tumi and the Volume, Tanika Charles), …his Parkdale era.

Heard in total, it is portrait of an artist pulled, stretched even, but not scattered. Honest, reflective, angry and clinging to love. Perhaps with hindsight it is also easy to see how it foreshadowed the depression and reclusive time that would follow it.

On a record with some incredible big studio work by Shaun Christie at King West Studio, our favourite joints around the office certainly remain the 8-Track intrusions that poke and jab at the polish of the main body.

When approached one day at the ideaFACTORY by KUMALO & JONES with the idea to partner in creating opportunities to develop intelligent and creative content for kids and parents… we admit to a moment of pause.

While we may admire N.L Kumalo and i.james.jones for their vast talents and curiosities, we are also aware that both artists currently sit on a back log of work both finished and under-development. The idea of enabling another creative detour brought on nervousness.

But as we sat where we sit at boldPIGEON and listened to the new fathers share their story and character sketches, an enthusiasm built in the room. Leading P.M. Kumalo (brother of N.L.) to remark “boldPIGEON – NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS IN CRAYON”

We laughed. Until M.dot said “But seriously, somebody write that down… Let’s see where this can go”.

The first project under development by the BP KIDS wing of the boldPIGEON.

Created by KUMALO & JONES (N.L. KUMALO / i.james.jones), the “FIRST SKETCHES” gives us an early look at BENEDICT VON COPPERBOTTOM aka “BENNY THE ANGRY PENNY”, an ornery (and quite possibly misunderstood and under-appreciated) old coin, and the adventures which made him so.